


As Far As First Dates Go...

by afteriwake



Series: Sometimes Fate Intervenes [2]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Amused Ben, Awkward Sulu, Conversations, Cute, Dinner, Family History, First Dates, Flirty Ben, Flirty Sulu, Greenhouses, Impressed Sulu, M/M, Names
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-11
Updated: 2017-01-11
Packaged: 2018-09-16 21:44:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9290864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: Hikaru and Ben enjoy a pretty good first date, talking over dinner and ending with Ben showing Hikaru the greenhouse up on his roof and casually setting up for another date.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [GreenSkyOverMe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GreenSkyOverMe/gifts).



> I don't know why, I just really enjoy the idea of these two together in the beginning stages of their relationship. This fic was inspired by a list of "[Star Trek Aesthetics](http://vialacteas.tumblr.com/post/138287798182)" that I was directed to by **GreenSkyOverMe** that had " _hikaru: fresh air_ " as one of them. It's meant literally (going up on the roof) and figuratively (Ben being in his life). So please, enjoy!
> 
> (Also, quick translations: _halmeoni_ and _oba_ both mean "grandmother," with the first being in Korean and the second being in Japanese, and _okaasan_ is the casual way of saying "mother" in Japanese.)

Sulu had been nervous a bit about returning the book to Ben. He wasn’t really a dating kind of person. The few friends of his who knew he was gay occasionally set him up on dates, but most of them hadn’t gone well and hadn’t led to a second. He hadn’t really looked himself, content to focus on Starfleet studies and the missions and his outside interests. Yes, he was lonely sometimes, but he looked at the love lives of his friends and had decided he was better off.

But lately, he’d thought maybe he wasn’t. After the near destruction of the _Enterprise_ , he wondered if maybe it wouldn’t be bad to put himself out there. And so, he’d shown up with the book at Ben’s home, nervous but open. And surprisingly, it had been going well. There had been homemade Korean food, all the various dishes that tasted better when they were homemade and not made from whatever it was that made them on board the _Enterprise_ , and the conversation had been flowing as freely as the Makkoli.

Ben took his chopsticks to his jjajangmyeon. “You know, I’ve heard of you for a while. I mean, with everything you’ve done in Starfleet, it’s hard not to. But even before that. My _halmeoni_ knew your grandmother. She’s Japanese, right?”

Sulu nodded. “My grandfather defied his family and married for love. My family shunned him for it and soon it left him a bitter and cold man, and he doubled back and tried to instill in the family the old traditions. He was very strict and very stern and wanted nothing to do with the Japanese side of our family, trying to erase my grandmother’s heritage. But my father loved his _okaasan_ and when I was born he defied family tradition and gave me her brother’s name. When I entered the Academy, I dropped my family name and simply went by Hikaru Sulu.” He had a small smile on his face. “My father is the only one who has accepted me as I am, since my _oba_ died before I came out. My mother was horrified, and my aunties and uncles and everyone else...they want me to be different. They _say_ they love me, but I know better.”

“My family would absolutely adore you,” Ben said before taking a bite of his food. “My _halmeoni_ said it was about time I went on a date with someone who was a respectable young man and not out for ‘a piece of tush,’ in her words.”

Sulu nearly choked on his food as he tried not to laugh. “She really said that?” he asked.

“She’s exaggerating,” Ben said. “I’ve been on maybe three dates in the last years and gotten two goodnight kisses.”

“That sounds like me,” Sulu said, taking some of his food in his chopsticks and taking a bite. “No one on the Enterprise cares about sexual orientation. There’s someone for everyone. But there’s something about having to see someone all the time, day in and day out, that’s...unsettling.”

“So you aren’t a relationship person?” Ben asked.

“No, it’s not that,” Sulu said, his eyes widening. “I’d just not rather have any relationship drama play out on a starship. Especially since our next mission will be five years in deep space. It will be _five years_ of nothing but...us. The same people day in and day out.”

Ben chuckled at that. “I could see how that might be a problem.”

Sulu relaxed. He hadn’t made a mess of things. Not that he wasn’t thinking about a relationship right now with Ben, but this was nice. This whole evening was nice. And he really _liked_ Ben. He’d found him to be easy to talk to, very funny, very charming…it was almost like he was more his type than he’d really considered when he’d had his first impression on the bench. He wouldn’t mind doing more of this planet-side while he was waiting for the _Enterprise_ to get repaired and the mission to go forward.

He went back to his food for a moment before he spoke. “So, you said you live the life of the lonely scholar?” he asked, looking up at Ben.

Ben nodded. “Though I’m never really lonely with my books and my plants. I tool around in the greenhouse on the roof when I’m not working on papers.”

Sulu perked up at that. “You have a greenhouse?”

“Yeah,” Ben said, a look of excitement on his face. “You want to go up and see it?”

“Yes,” Sulu said, trying to keep the excitement out of his face. With the knowledge that Ben had exhibited before when they’d talked about the book, he was curious to see the types of plants he tended. Were they hybrids? Indigenous to Earth only or from other planets? Rare plants? He was more curious than he wanted to admit.

They abandoned their dinner and headed to the door, and after Ben locked the door they headed to the lift. Ben put a key into the keyhole and then turned it, keying in a code, and then the lift began to move. “I had to pay a hefty amount to get the special roof access, but it was worth it,” Ben said, turning to Sulu with a smile. “It helps that I had a good inheritance.”

Sulu grinned in turn. “Did you design the greenhouse yourself?” he asked.

Ben shook his head. “It was already here,” he said. “I improved it to take care of the plants I wanted to cultivate, but the structure was here. Management didn’t know what to do with it or what it was really worth. To be honest, if I had been them I would have charged more, and they already charged me an arm and a leg.” The lift doors opened and Sulu took in a deep breath of the brisk fresh air before stepping out on the gravel-topped roof. It took a moment before he focused on the greenhouse. Really, it should have been greenhouses; there was one building, but they were divided into sections, each with their own door and, from what he could see from his vantage point, different climate controls and different heating and cooling units and different types of lighting. “My pride and joy.”

“This is amazing,” Sulu said in an almost reverential tone.

“There are ferns, orchids, roses, vegetables...I have my own basic garden, pretty much...and in the tallest part, there’s a miniature orchard,” Ben was saying as he led Sulu closer. “That’s not everything, but those are my favorite parts.”

Sulu shook his head. “This is...”

“Amazing?” Ben suggested, his tone amused.

Sulu chuckled slightly. “I would probably sell all of my belongings and anything else I could get my hands on for this.”

“Or maybe you could come over for dinner again,” Ben said.

Sulu turned to him. “Is this your way of asking me out on a second date?” he asked.

“Did it work?” Ben asked.

“How about I take you out to dinner and then we come back and you show me anything new?” Sulu said. “Maybe...Thursday?”

Ben grinned widely. “Thursday it is,” he said. Sulu grinned back, then moved closer to Ben before turning to the greenhouse before Ben stepped forward to give him the grand tour. Ben definitely was smooth, he realized, but he was a good guy. And after everything, he needed more good in his life. Ben might be just the person to give him that.


End file.
